Strapped in a harness, Nikole Boggs is suspended a few inches from the ground in a position more commonly associated with flying superheroes.
“I’ve been in here for, like, two and a half hours,” she says, gently swaying in the middle of a wooden frame. “It’s pretty comfortable.”
The mechanical engineering student has been working with her team on a device for a 7-year-old girl with cerebral palsy. The device, called a walk harness lifting frame, was one of several projects on display Friday at this year’s Engineering Project Expo. The annual expo highlights over 200 individual and team projects, many of which seek to benefit people with physical challenges.
During the expo, students interact with project sponsors, faculty and other students, sharing information about their process and the final result. The lifting frame, for example, pairs with a harness designed by biomedical engineering students. The disabled girl will be able to pull her wheelchair up to the frame while strapped into the harness. From there she will be able to hook her harness to frame cables that will lift her into an upright position.
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